Royal Gorge Helitours' new pilot offers tours of region

Royal Gorge Helitours pilot Will Sanders talks about his Robinson R44 Friday at 45045 W. U.S. 50.
(Jeff Shane/Daily Record)

If you've never experienced a view of the Royal Gorge Bridge from the sky, you're missing out on some unique and breathtaking scenery.

Royal Gorge Helitours offers a bird's eye view of the bridge and Arkansas River that ribbons through the canyon, seven days a week at the Royal Gorge Heliport, seven miles west of Cañon City at 45045 U.S. 50.

For several years, locals and tourists may have noticed the bright red helicopter based at the heliport, but now the pad is home to a blue Robinson R-44 aircraft operated by flight pilot Will Sanders of Colorado Vertical.

The helicopter seats three passengers and the pilot, allowing each occupant a window seat.

"We get a lot of happy customers that have flown in the Grand Canyon, New Zealand, Hawaii or somewhere else that were stuck in the middle of someone they didn't know," Sanders said. "Here it's all private and everybody gets a window seat."

Sanders has a great deal of flight experience under his belt. He has been flying since he was 16, and he was a pilot with the Colorado State Patrol for seven years.

"I started flying in my home town of Pagosa Springs and got my pilots license in 2003 and my helicopter license in 2004," he said. "I've been flying almost full time ever since."

Sanders took over as pilot of the Royal Gorge Helitours in July of 2011 when owner and pilot Mike Pond retired, Sanders said. Pond still owns the business, but Sanders' parent company, Colorado Vertical, provides the helicopter.

Advertisement

Royal Gorge Helitours offers three adventure flights from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week running from mid-March through September.

"On the 'Bridge Run' we blast over the canyon and the canyon falls away underneath, it's amazing," Sanders said. "That's what everyone enjoys most, I think, is that view down inside the canyon because it's so sheer, the vertical walls are granite."

The Bridge Run, $49 per person, takes a trip around the suspension bridge, totaling about an eight-mile journey.

The Canyon Run, $99 per person, also shows the far-east end of the canyon, following the south rim. Round trip is about 16 miles.

NEW YORK (AP) — Viewers said farewell to Amy Poehler and the gang of Pawnee, Indiana, bureaucrats on NBC's "Parks and Recreation," in a finale that made more of a dent online than on television. Full Story